As part of my Michelin Shanghai Scramble I visited a one Michelin star restaurant serving Shanghai classics called Lao Zheng Xing. The restaurant is supposedly the oldest Shanghainese restaurant in the city (founded in 1862) and moved to its current multi-story location in 1997. It is near Raffles mall and People’s Square, not far from the Bund. There is no English name on the storefront, see the picture below.
The visit
I headed to the restaurant on a Saturday evening without a reservation. At 6pm the restaurant was already full (even if it is a huge venue), but I had to wait only 10 minutes before a table got free for me.
I got a table on the second floor in a classic noisy large Chinese dining room.
My first dish was cucumber in brown sauce. It was ok, the cucumbers were “crispy”, the sauce was nothing special.
Then I got a fairly large portion of Shanghai smoked soy fish. It was just ok, I did have better ones. These were full of small bones.
Then I had four pieces of baked abalone. The abalone was a bit hard to chew, but overall I liked this dish.
My biggest dish was the famous Shanghai’s egg and crab soup (
Xiefen) that came with sesame buns. It was actually the first time I tried it, so I cannot make comparisons. It was not crab season, so it was probably not the best time to try the dish. As you might expect it was very sweet. It was a dish for two people.
Then I had the classic soup dumplings (not invented in Shanghai, but a local favorite). This time I was really let down. The dumplings were hardly edible! Maybe I was given a set of dumplings left from another table? I have tried soup dumplings elsewhere and this was in no way close to an acceptable standard, with almost no soup inside and the poor dumplings that looked like asking to be put out of their misery.
A final dim sum dish, buns with cream, was also terrible.
The check
I spent 448 RMB (66.6 USD) for a very disappointing meal. I knew that this was not supposed to be a fancy restaurant, but the problem was the quality of some of the dishes that was just unacceptable. Maybe I was unlucky, but I guess the Michelin guide included the restaurant mostly as an homage to the local cuisine; however it should not be listed, in my opinion.
Admittedly, I ordered enough food for two people (I did not finish it) and this makes it at least an affordable restaurant, sharing with Madam Goose the record of cheapest Michelin restaurant in Shanghai. However the menu is quite extensive and also includes expensive dishes, so it is quite easy to overspend.
Where in Shanghai:
556 Fuzhou Lu
In Chinese: 黄埔区福州路556号